OxRail 2040 - plan from Oxfordshire County Council

[jimm]

What a great use of my council tax. Who are they expecting to pay for this? Presumably the government, which I think we all know isn't happening anytime soon. 6tph for Radley and Culham is a similar service level to some inner London stations with far greater populations, I don't see how they're planning on managing it, the line thickness (Which while looking like it is isn't actually proportional to service levels) suggests these trains continue towards London.

It is nice to see ambition, but a ridiculous amount of money will have been spent on this report, just to basically list a bunch of ambitions with very little realistic chance of ever being funded.

According to your profile, you are in Bath, so how are you paying council tax in Oxfordshire?

If you are in Oxfordshire, then I am surprised that you are not aware that something like 3,500 new homes are slated for the Culham area in coming years, which might just have something to do with the proposed future service frequency at that station.

There are sites designated for something like 900 extra homes in the Radley area and a lot of new homes have just been built up the road at the south end of Kennington, right next to the railway.

So maybe someone at the county council does know what they are trying to do here - plan for the future, as the year given in the title suggests.

Or would you prefer that they do nothing, just let all the houses get built and then try to play catch-up in a disorganised and disjointed manner afterwards?

 

[Brubulus]

If an Abingdon spur were to be built, wouldn't a Kennington station be a good idea? I do know how it's starting to get difficult to fit every train in but from a transport perspective it would be useful.

 

[William3000]

Largely agree, and the trackbed is mostly cycle path or unused. However, you end up with only the centre of Abingdon getting served - and Abingdon is a sprawling town, so you still end up with traffic.

Given the railway can't do anything for less than £100m these days, how many years of a 10-minute daytime frequency bus connection to Radley station doing two or three routes would that fund..? That would be pretty handy.Bus services are more than adequate for relatively short journeys from Abingdon to Oxford, and have the advantage over rail of serving the city centre.

Yes, it's a good bus service - but A34 and Abingdon Road traffic is horrific so peak hour is very unreliable from a journey time perspective.
.

Could London Marylebone to Oxford services alternate between Abingdon and the Cowley Branch? I guess ideally both the Cowley Branch and Abingdon would have a half hourly service and that would only give them both an hourly service

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Sep 2025 ==

Tweedbank, population 2,000.
Galashiels, population ~15,000.

Galashiels to Tweedbank itself is 2.1 miles, same distance as Cholsey to Wallingford..

You could argue there's a catchment area for Tweedbank far larger than the village itself - but Galashiels would do the job just as well - so why the extra miles?

Leven and Methil is about 20,000 population between them, and got 5 miles of long abandoned track rebuilt.

But, Scotland. Different rules.


The travel from Caldecott to the original station (~Waitrose) would be 9 of that 15 mins!!

There is no fundamental reason why there need to be different rules in Scotland. Would make sense for England to adopt the same rules

 

[AlastairFraser]

According to your profile, you are in Bath, so how are you paying council tax in Oxfordshire?

If you are in Oxfordshire, then I am surprised that you are not aware that something like 3,500 new homes are slated for the Culham area in coming years, which might just have something to do with the proposed future service frequency at that station.

There are sites designated for something like 900 extra homes in the Radley area and a lot of new homes have just been built up the road at the south end of Kennington, right next to the railway.

So maybe someone at the county council does know what they are trying to do here - plan for the future, as the year given in the title suggests.

Or would you prefer that they do nothing, just let all the houses get built and then try to play catch-up in a disorganised and disjointed manner afterwards?

Exactly, and it's not like OCC aren't trying to build road infrastructure to support the increase in population too - the Didcot North Perimeter Road is a good example, but even OCC recognise that significant public transport investment is needed to help transport people around the cities and large towns of the regions.

If an Abingdon spur were to be built, wouldn't a Kennington station be a good idea? I do know how it's starting to get difficult to fit every train in but from a transport perspective it would be useful.

It would be good, but it would be difficult to deliver without platform loops unless the Cherwell Valley line was 4 tracked in its entirety, which may mess with the cost benefit calculations. Kennington is also quite close to Redbridge Park and Ride, so it's not too badly affected by congestion if people walk/cycle/drive to there and catch a bus in, without interacting with the Eastern Bypass and/or A34.

Open Abingdon station + spur and the Blackbird Leys/Oxford Science Park branch first, then consider a Kennington station.

Could London Marylebone to Oxford services alternate between Abingdon and the Cowley Branch? I guess ideally both the Cowley Branch and Abingdon would have a half hourly service and that would only give them both an hourly service

Remember that there are going to be EWR services from MK too, so you could extend those through to Abingdon and the London services through to the Cowley branch.

Oxford Science Park is probably a better target for through London services.

Abingdon probably better for a regional service, especially if it means travellers from the villages around Oxford heading further afield via MK can be dropped off in Abingdon, instead of having to drive to Oxford station with the new congestion zone (I don't think the stations on the Cowley branch will be delivered with anything but minimal parking).

 

[stevieinselby]

Tweedbank, population 2,000.
Galashiels, population ~15,000.

Galashiels to Tweedbank itself is 2.1 miles, same distance as Cholsey to Wallingford..

As well as the parking situation, another factor is that extending the line beyond Galashiels to Tweedbank only really had a capital cost in terms of the construction work, but didn't have any significant operational cost, because the train is running anyway and so having it go an extra few minutes at the end of the route didn't increase the number of trains or the number of crew needed to run the service. A reopened Wallingford branch, on the other hand, would need an additional unit and crew to run as a stand-alone service, which even on a half-hourly frequency would spend more time idle than running.

I don't know if Galashiels only having space for a single platform, but Tweedbank allowing two platforms, would also have affected the operation or reliability of the line if it terminated at Galashiels.

 

[AlastairFraser]

A reopened Wallingford branch, on the other hand, would need an additional unit and crew to run as a stand-alone service, which even on a half-hourly frequency would spend more time idle than running.

And there's no real prospect of running it through on the main line, so a connection would always been needed and it would probably be no difference time wise for Wallingford residents to catch a bus or drive to Didcot Parkway for the better links (including London fasts) there.

 

[Falcon1200]

Should the Abingdon branch be rebuilt, where would the terminus be, and how would intending passengers get there? The buses to Oxford might be subject to congestion delays but there are frequent services via multiple routes serving various suburbs, some going right through Oxford City Centre to the JR Hospital. Far more useful to far more people than the branch from Radley ever was or ever could be.

 

[The Planner]

Should the Abingdon branch be rebuilt, where would the terminus be, and how would intending passengers get there? The buses to Oxford might be subject to congestion delays but there are frequent services via multiple routes serving various suburbs, some going right through Oxford City Centre to the JR Hospital. Far more useful to far more people than the branch from Radley ever was or ever could be.

Clearly Waitrose is on top of the existing site, closest is going to be off Audlett Drive?

 

[SynthD]

Abingdon has poor links to Radley station, which has two bike racks. Make a proper shared path from the edge of town where the off road cycle path ends, to extra racks at the station. There's no room for a bus turning circle, maybe a minibus would fit, in the car park. I think rebuilding these tiny branches are for towns not so plausibly well connected by other means.

 

[BlueLeanie]

Clearly Waitrose is on top of the existing site, closest is going to be off Audlett Drive?

Marks & Spencer are planning on opening a new store at the old Abingdon Homebase unit off the A34. Can Abingdon sustain both? If not, it would be a great location for a station.

If an Abingdon spur were to be built, wouldn't a Kennington station be a good idea? I do know how it's starting to get difficult to fit every train in but from a transport perspective it would be useful.

Redbridge Station would be a far better idea. Let people change services for the Science Park, Ellison Institute, BMW and ARC. Also if mainline services stopped at South Oxford Parkway, it would save thousands of car, bus, and bicycle journeys into central Oxford.

 

[Snow1964]

A further announcement from Oxford City Council
First priority seems to be reopening Cowley branch to passengers

Published: Friday, 19 September 2025

Rob Brighouse has been announced as the independent Chair of the newly formed Oxford Strategic Rail Promoters’ Group.

The group will champion coordinated rail investment to unlock growth, enhance connectivity, and support a sustainable, inclusive future for Oxford. One of the first priorities will be to help move forward plans to reopen the Cowley Branch Line to passengers.
Rob joins representatives from the Department of Transport, Oxford Growth Commission, local MPs, Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council to form the advisory group.

What is now what they call the Cowley branch was actually an extension of the Wycombe railway from Thame, but most of the line is now closed and lifted.

Chair announced to champion rail investment and help drive forward reopening of the Cowley Branch Line – Oxford City Council

Rob Brighouse has been announced as the independent Chair of the newly formed Oxford Strategic Rail Promoters’ Group.

www.oxford.gov.uk

 

[The Planner]

A further announcement from Oxford City Council
First priority seems to be reopening Cowley branch to passengers


What is now what they call the Cowley branch was actually an extension of the Wycombe railway from Thame, but most of the line is now closed and lifted.

Chair announced to champion rail investment and help drive forward reopening of the Cowley Branch Line – Oxford City Council

Rob Brighouse has been announced as the independent Chair of the newly formed Oxford Strategic Rail Promoters’ Group.

www.oxford.gov.uk

Are they paying for it, or just lobbying?

 

[goldisgood]

Clearly some of the plans in the report are recognise - but it does effectively consolidate some pretty realistic local/regional priorities such as the Cowley Branch Line (serving key employment sites), East West Rail, doubling services on the North Cotswold Line and establishing an Oxford-Bristol service; all of which seem relatively sensible proposals to enable growth. I suspect Oxford-Bristol sees some repressed demand from the lack of direct services, in either case seeing 290 daily journeys in each direction and three of the biggest flows (outside of London) not served by direct trains.

Concerning the Abingdon branch - to put it bluntly, such a project would be a colossal waste of money and would fail to address local transport needs or the priorities of people who actually live in the area! As some have highlighted, the branch faces the wrong way for services towards Didcot and London, and a town centre station would require people travelling towards Oxford to travel for the wrong direction for as long as they would be on the train for, alongside being poorly-sited for a Parkway. With exception of Caldecott, most of Abingdon's estates are built to the north and east of the town, on routes to Oxford, and are accordingly served by buses running between Oxford and Abingdon (and further afield). Policies rightly build on these bus services as a priority, aiming to provide a northbound bus lane on the A34/A423 between Lodge Hill and Donnington Bridge to reduce the impact of congestion on bus services. As some have also highlighted, bus services serve the city centre far more effectively than rail will. The town isn't far enough from Oxford to capitalise on the journey-time differentials given by rail, and the line is unlikely to sustain a frequency to rival the bus services. Funding to better connect Abingdon should be to improve the frequency of bus services (particularly routes X1/X15 and 35) and install the northbound bus lane.

 

[cle]

Remember that there are going to be EWR services from MK too, so you could extend those through to Abingdon and the London services through to the Cowley branch.

Oxford Science Park is probably a better target for through London services.

The best target will be the most uniform services, 2tph at even intervals, knowing that there will likely be a single line section for a good while. If they double/loop, I'd be most surprised.

As such, the EWR service to MKC seems to fit the bill - same stopping pattern and slots. Marylebone has peak variance, late night stoppers etc, all the things - so wouldn't be as slick to slot into Cowley.

I also think that it's a more regional employment spot for daily travellers - whereas Londoners who visit might be on an ad hoc basis (meetings etc) - ie directly accessible to Milton Keynes - that's a large (not incredibly blue chip skilled admittedly) market.


Agree that Abingdon is a non-starter. Oxford might end up with a lot more services and complexity (and needs the platforms to do it) - - - - with these, another Cotswold, Bristol, Didcot extensions, a Moor St... and of course EWR - all potentially coming one day. It's great but I can't see the need to add another little branch.

 

[AlastairFraser]

The best target will be the most uniform services, 2tph at even intervals, knowing that there will likely be a single line section for a good while. If they double/loop, I'd be most surprised.

As such, the EWR service to MKC seems to fit the bill - same stopping pattern and slots. Marylebone has peak variance, late night stoppers etc, all the things - so wouldn't be as slick to slot into Cowley.

True, it's just that a direct London link may be more worthy of a contribution to reopening the Cowley branch from local businesses and landowners, and one of the Cowley branch station could be used as a South Oxford parkway, given the line's relative proximity to the eastern bypass.

Agree that Abingdon is a non-starter. Oxford might end up with a lot more services and complexity (and needs the platforms to do it) - - - - with these, another Cotswold, Bristol, Didcot extensions, a Moor St... and of course EWR - all potentially coming one day. It's great but I can't see the need to add another little branch.

Something will need to be done with Abingdon, it's not that far off 50k population at the rate it is growing (37.5k at the moment, but apparently the huge barracks/airfield site is closing in the early 2030s, the site of which will likely be sold for housing) and there is unlikely to be any serious road expansion in the area (especially closer to Oxford at the pinchpoint).
Improve the buses all you want, but they or the park and rides have a ceiling in terms of appeal, and congestion on the last stretches into central Oxford after passing the park and rides is starting to severely affect already lengthened bus journey time.

I think Oxford will have to go for some sort of regional light rail system with branches to Witney/Carterton/Eynsham, Abingdon/Milton/Harwell, Wheatley/Thame, and perhaps Faringdon/Highworth/Watchfield/Swindon (depending on how Faringdon grows), if rail capacity cannot support growth.

Otherwise, the city is going to grind to a halt, and it won't just affect the local area, it will affect nationally significant infrastructure such as Harwell Campus and the Culham fusion research centre.

 

[overthere 2]

To all the people saying re-building the Abingdon branch would be a waste of money and instead money should be spent on buses even though the ones running at the moment are getting stuck in congestion I would ask the following question, which of the following statements is most likely to be true:




1 - All these motorists are desperate to use the bus but cant get a seat so they have to use their cars and look jealously on the people using the bus wishing they could be on it.

2 - The buses have already got all the people that want/need to use the bus and the only way you are going to get motorists out of their cars and cut congestion is to provide another means of transport. i.e. Trains




With some bus services they are called things like the "Hopper" or the "Nipper" because instead of being out and out profit making services they are more designed to link people with local facilities or places where they can then travel on to further destinations so what I would do is take that concept and adapt it for rail by doing the following: Taking Autotank's post #36 suggestion I would run a train starting at Wallingford from start of service till about 10am and then from 5pm till end of service to Cholsey I would then reverse to call at Didcot from there the train would carry on to Grove.

Looking at Google maps like pretty much everywhere there has been mass house building both in Grove and Wantage and no doubt there will be more and the problem with building a station on the mainline is you are encouraging people to get in to their cars to drive to the station and the problem is once they are in there car they may change there mind about using the train and do the whole journey by car so what you need to do is bring the station as close to them as you can so it is easy for them to walk/cycle too it so while I would leave space for a station to be built on the mainline in the future I would build a branch running south either to the east or west of Grove but most likely the east running beside the A338 Station Road towards Wantage with one or two simple halt style stations, at the king Alfred way roundabout I would tunnel under it and the A338 pop up the opposite side then run the line between the trees/greenery and the A338 to terminate next door to the Sainsburys petrol station here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/vCLjWE3Sm61PQaRM8. I would then reverse and go back to Didcot reverse again and head north.

A few people have pointed out that the Abingdon junction is in the wrong direction so I would change it to a triangle junction then run to a new station (single platform/bus shelter should do) built on the site of the old one in the Waitrose car park and get Waitrose to stump up some cash to help pay for it as in the mornings they would get commuters coming in to buy food for their lunchtimes or food for their journey if they are going further afield and in the evenings people doing there shopping after getting off the train before going home or picking up a microwave meal/takeaway if they cant be bothered to cook.

From there reverse again then carry on to Oxford, from Oxford carry on north on to the rebuilt Witney branch. First stop would be Eynsham and there are a couple of empty fields between the already built houses and the old railway line which a developer would love to build on and considering any new houses are likely to be brought by people using the railway to commute a large donation from the developer to get the line built should not be a problem, from there you then carry on to Witney.

Sadly the line in and out of Witney and the station site have been completely obliterated and unless you were willing to spend possibly millions on demolition to rebuild the railway on its original alignment then that part of the line has gone forever therefore I would try and thread it through and put a station as close as I could to the ducklington/A40 roundabout here https://maps.app.goo.gl/cotyVRhFFAfipUSt8 there is already a cycle path to Witney so you just add as many local buses running to and from the town center as you can and any coming off and on to the A40.

From there you have got a clear run to Carterton and Brize Norton. At Carterton and Brize not only do you have massive housing development but you also have the added bonus of the RAF personal who live on the base but also the ones who commute in. Looking at the geography of the area you have the railway in the south, the airfield in the middle and Carterton and Brize with what looks like expanding development in the north so I might look at building a new alignment to the north of the current development so if they keep building north then the station ends up in the middle of the development so makes it more convenient for more people.

I would also look at extending to Lechlade because while it is not huge it is a tourist honeypot so linking it with Oxford with a convenient train should be a decent money maker.

Again reverse back up to Oxford then a run down the Cowley branch then back to Oxford then Didcot - Cholsey and back to Wallingford I would also run a service in the opposite direction.

During the day so the Cholsey a Wallingford railway can keep operating I would either terminate at Cholsey or just miss both of them out altogether.


This plan would have the following advantages:

Get people out of there cars so cutting congestion

Give more connections which would give more options for both people looking for work and companys looking for employees.

Providing direct links between places, for example while I dont know what the buses are like in the area I very much doubt you can get a direct bus say from Wallington to Wantage or Wantage to Brize Norton without at least changing once and if you were trying to drive in the mornings or evenings it would take ages.

Brings back on to the network a lot of places that had a railway then lost it.

I dont know what house prices are like in Oxford but I am guessing they are extortionate as not only do you have locals trying to buy but you also have people moving from other areas to work and land lords looking to convert houses in to student accommodation so if the Witney line was re-opened workers and students could commute in thus easing house prices in Oxford.

 

[BlueLeanie]

To all the people saying re-building the Abingdon branch would be a waste of money and instead money should be spent on buses even though the ones running at the moment are getting stuck in congestion I would ask the following question, which of the following statements is most likely to be true:




1 - All these motorists are desperate to use the bus but cant get a seat so they have to use their cars and look jealously on the people using the bus wishing they could be on it.

2 - The buses have already got all the people that want/need to use the bus and the only way you are going to get motorists out of their cars and cut congestion is to provide another means of transport. i.e. Trains




With some bus services they are called things like the "Hopper" or the "Nipper" because instead of being out and out profit making services they are more designed to link people with local facilities or places where they can then travel on to further destinations so what I would do is take that concept and adapt it for rail by doing the following: Taking Autotank's post #36 suggestion I would run a train starting at Wallingford from start of service till about 10am and then from 5pm till end of service to Cholsey I would then reverse to call at Didcot from there the train would carry on to Grove.

Looking at Google maps like pretty much everywhere there has been mass house building both in Grove and Wantage and no doubt there will be more and the problem with building a station on the mainline is you are encouraging people to get in to their cars to drive to the station and the problem is once they are in there car they may change there mind about using the train and do the whole journey by car so what you need to do is bring the station as close to them as you can so it is easy for them to walk/cycle too it so while I would leave space for a station to be built on the mainline in the future I would build a branch running south either to the east or west of Grove but most likely the east running beside the A338 Station Road towards Wantage with one or two simple halt style stations, at the king Alfred way roundabout I would tunnel under it and the A338 pop up the opposite side then run the line between the trees/greenery and the A338 to terminate next door to the Sainsburys petrol station here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/vCLjWE3Sm61PQaRM8. I would then reverse and go back to Didcot reverse again and head north.

A few people have pointed out that the Abingdon junction is in the wrong direction so I would change it to a triangle junction then run to a new station (single platform/bus shelter should do) built on the site of the old one in the Waitrose car park and get Waitrose to stump up some cash to help pay for it as in the mornings they would get commuters coming in to buy food for their lunchtimes or food for their journey if they are going further afield and in the evenings people doing there shopping after getting off the train before going home or picking up a microwave meal/takeaway if they cant be bothered to cook.

From there reverse again then carry on to Oxford, from Oxford carry on north on to the rebuilt Witney branch. First stop would be Eynsham and there are a couple of empty fields between the already built houses and the old railway line which a developer would love to build on and considering any new houses are likely to be brought by people using the railway to commute a large donation from the developer to get the line built should not be a problem, from there you then carry on to Witney.

Sadly the line in and out of Witney and the station site have been completely obliterated and unless you were willing to spend possibly millions on demolition to rebuild the railway on its original alignment then that part of the line has gone forever therefore I would try and thread it through and put a station as close as I could to the ducklington/A40 roundabout here https://maps.app.goo.gl/cotyVRhFFAfipUSt8 there is already a cycle path to Witney so you just add as many local buses running to and from the town center as you can and any coming off and on to the A40.

From there you have got a clear run to Carterton and Brize Norton. At Carterton and Brize not only do you have massive housing development but you also have the added bonus of the RAF personal who live on the base but also the ones who commute in. Looking at the geography of the area you have the railway in the south, the airfield in the middle and Carterton and Brize with what looks like expanding development in the north so I might look at building a new alignment to the north of the current development so if they keep building north then the station ends up in the middle of the development so makes it more convenient for more people.

I would also look at extending to Lechlade because while it is not huge it is a tourist honeypot so linking it with Oxford with a convenient train should be a decent money maker.

Again reverse back up to Oxford then a run down the Cowley branch then back to Oxford then Didcot - Cholsey and back to Wallingford I would also run a service in the opposite direction.

During the day so the Cholsey a Wallingford railway can keep operating I would either terminate at Cholsey or just miss both of them out altogether.


This plan would have the following advantages:

Get people out of there cars so cutting congestion

Give more connections which would give more options for both people looking for work and companys looking for employees.

Providing direct links between places, for example while I dont know what the buses are like in the area I very much doubt you can get a direct bus say from Wallington to Wantage or Wantage to Brize Norton without at least changing once and if you were trying to drive in the mornings or evenings it would take ages.

Brings back on to the network a lot of places that had a railway then lost it.

I dont know what house prices are like in Oxford but I am guessing they are extortionate as not only do you have locals trying to buy but you also have people moving from other areas to work and land lords looking to convert houses in to student accommodation so if the Witney line was re-opened workers and students could commute in thus easing house prices in Oxford.

A reversing train service is almost as annoying as a bus service that loops round.

Give up on Abingdon and build Redbridge Parkway.

Then bite the bullet and buy land.

Have a new line south of Didcot, on a grade separated junction, that heads up to Harwell, weaves somehow through/around Grove/Wantage, snakes up to Faringdon, up to Carterton, Witney Parkway, Eynsham Parkway, and down to Yarnton before heading into Oxford on existing lines.

 

[SynthD]

With some bus services they are called things like the "Hopper" or the "Nipper" because instead of being out and out profit making services they are more designed to link people with local facilities or places where they can then travel on to further destinations

There are two bus routes at Radley station and none at Culham. The only commuter one of the two, the 35, only serves one sliver of Abingdon and ends at the High St. They would add on a circuit around the suburbs for your aim.

get Waitrose to stump up some cash to help pay for it

Waitrose is already built. Cash is only stumped up at the point of development, and in this case not even a few percent of what you need.

 

[PTR 444]

Concerning the Abingdon branch - to put it bluntly, such a project would be a colossal waste of money and would fail to address local transport needs or the priorities of people who actually live in the area! As some have highlighted, the branch faces the wrong way for services towards Didcot and London,

You could run Marylebone - Oxford trains into Abingdon without reversing, although admittedly that would still be a slower journey time than a change onto the Paddington trains.

 

[BlueLeanie]

There are two bus routes at Radley station and none at Culham. The only commuter one of the two, the 35, only serves one sliver of Abingdon and ends at the High St. They would add on a circuit around the suburbs for your aim.

Hourly service from Cowley to Abingdon serves the entrance to the Culham Science Park a few hundred metres away.

 

[Farigiraf]

To all the people saying re-building the Abingdon branch would be a waste of money and instead money should be spent on buses even though the ones running at the moment are getting stuck in congestion I would ask the following question, which of the following statements is most likely to be true:




1 - All these motorists are desperate to use the bus but cant get a seat so they have to use their cars and look jealously on the people using the bus wishing they could be on it.

2 - The buses have already got all the people that want/need to use the bus and the only way you are going to get motorists out of their cars and cut congestion is to provide another means of transport. i.e. Trains




With some bus services they are called things like the "Hopper" or the "Nipper" because instead of being out and out profit making services they are more designed to link people with local facilities or places where they can then travel on to further destinations so what I would do is take that concept and adapt it for rail by doing the following: Taking Autotank's post #36 suggestion I would run a train starting at Wallingford from start of service till about 10am and then from 5pm till end of service to Cholsey I would then reverse to call at Didcot from there the train would carry on to Grove.

Looking at Google maps like pretty much everywhere there has been mass house building both in Grove and Wantage and no doubt there will be more and the problem with building a station on the mainline is you are encouraging people to get in to their cars to drive to the station and the problem is once they are in there car they may change there mind about using the train and do the whole journey by car so what you need to do is bring the station as close to them as you can so it is easy for them to walk/cycle too it so while I would leave space for a station to be built on the mainline in the future I would build a branch running south either to the east or west of Grove but most likely the east running beside the A338 Station Road towards Wantage with one or two simple halt style stations, at the king Alfred way roundabout I would tunnel under it and the A338 pop up the opposite side then run the line between the trees/greenery and the A338 to terminate next door to the Sainsburys petrol station here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/vCLjWE3Sm61PQaRM8. I would then reverse and go back to Didcot reverse again and head north.

A few people have pointed out that the Abingdon junction is in the wrong direction so I would change it to a triangle junction then run to a new station (single platform/bus shelter should do) built on the site of the old one in the Waitrose car park and get Waitrose to stump up some cash to help pay for it as in the mornings they would get commuters coming in to buy food for their lunchtimes or food for their journey if they are going further afield and in the evenings people doing there shopping after getting off the train before going home or picking up a microwave meal/takeaway if they cant be bothered to cook.

From there reverse again then carry on to Oxford, from Oxford carry on north on to the rebuilt Witney branch. First stop would be Eynsham and there are a couple of empty fields between the already built houses and the old railway line which a developer would love to build on and considering any new houses are likely to be brought by people using the railway to commute a large donation from the developer to get the line built should not be a problem, from there you then carry on to Witney.

Sadly the line in and out of Witney and the station site have been completely obliterated and unless you were willing to spend possibly millions on demolition to rebuild the railway on its original alignment then that part of the line has gone forever therefore I would try and thread it through and put a station as close as I could to the ducklington/A40 roundabout here https://maps.app.goo.gl/cotyVRhFFAfipUSt8 there is already a cycle path to Witney so you just add as many local buses running to and from the town center as you can and any coming off and on to the A40.

From there you have got a clear run to Carterton and Brize Norton. At Carterton and Brize not only do you have massive housing development but you also have the added bonus of the RAF personal who live on the base but also the ones who commute in. Looking at the geography of the area you have the railway in the south, the airfield in the middle and Carterton and Brize with what looks like expanding development in the north so I might look at building a new alignment to the north of the current development so if they keep building north then the station ends up in the middle of the development so makes it more convenient for more people.

I would also look at extending to Lechlade because while it is not huge it is a tourist honeypot so linking it with Oxford with a convenient train should be a decent money maker.

Again reverse back up to Oxford then a run down the Cowley branch then back to Oxford then Didcot - Cholsey and back to Wallingford I would also run a service in the opposite direction.

During the day so the Cholsey a Wallingford railway can keep operating I would either terminate at Cholsey or just miss both of them out altogether.


This plan would have the following advantages:

Get people out of there cars so cutting congestion

Give more connections which would give more options for both people looking for work and companys looking for employees.

Providing direct links between places, for example while I dont know what the buses are like in the area I very much doubt you can get a direct bus say from Wallington to Wantage or Wantage to Brize Norton without at least changing once and if you were trying to drive in the mornings or evenings it would take ages.

Brings back on to the network a lot of places that had a railway then lost it.

I dont know what house prices are like in Oxford but I am guessing they are extortionate as not only do you have locals trying to buy but you also have people moving from other areas to work and land lords looking to convert houses in to student accommodation so if the Witney line was re-opened workers and students could commute in thus easing house prices in Oxford.

If connections to the mainline network are unfeasible due to money, capacity or a number of other things then a lot of the medium sized towns orbiting Oxford seem like a good candidate for a tram-train/stadtbahn style solution - especially considering Oxford station is capacity constrained and located away from the tourist areas of the city. Tram-trains/stadtbahns can run on the main roads through the touristy centre then on regular railways / light rail lines to Abingdon, Witney, Kidlington etc.
It provides the 'rail' effect (i.e. a number of people see themselves above taking a bus but are fine taking a train/tram - hence why London/Kent's 'trackless tram' electric buses have been successful) which allows for modal shift while also not clogging up 2-track mainlines with frequent local trains.
Unfortunately all pie in the sky (considering Leeds-Bradford with almost 2 million people continues with just buses) until DfT/councils realise we're just as much Western Europe as France or Germany where these things are standard.

 

[67018]

Without wishing to rain on everyone's parade, did I miss something somewhere? Abingdon is not mentioned in the consultation document and the sort of things being discussed here strike me as far less likely and practicable than things that are actually being proposed. So it would look like, unless the promoters of this strategy do a big about turn, this is not on the cards any time before 2041.

In the meantime, Rob Brighouse has got started as chair of the Oxford Strategic Promoters' Group and the BBC picked up his comments yesterday https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3rv7812wg3o

 

[The Planner]

Without wishing to rain on everyone's parade, did I miss something somewhere? Abingdon is not mentioned in the consultation document and the sort of things being discussed here strike me as far less likely and practicable than things that are actually being proposed. So it would look like, unless the promoters of this strategy do a big about turn, this is not on the cards any time before 2041.

In the meantime, Rob Brighouse has got started as chair of the Oxford Strategic Promoters' Group and the BBC picked up his comments yesterday https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3rv7812wg3o

None of its on the cards as its just a wish list document, where is the detail on how its being funded?

 

[bspahh]

To all the people saying re-building the Abingdon branch would be a waste of money and instead money should be spent on buses even though the ones running at the moment are getting stuck in congestion I would ask the following question, which of the following statements is most likely to be true:

1 - All these motorists are desperate to use the bus but cant get a seat so they have to use their cars and look jealously on the people using the bus wishing they could be on it.

2 - The buses have already got all the people that want/need to use the bus and the only way you are going to get motorists out of their cars and cut congestion is to provide another means of transport. i.e. Trains

In 1997-99, I lived in the North of Abingdon and worked at the Oxford Science Park, near the football ground.

To get to work, I would sometimes drive and sometimes cycle. It was free to park at work, and the congestion was fine. I would take the bus if I wanted to go into the centre of Oxford, as parking was expensive and the traffic was awful. However, the buses would stop a lot, there were lots of speed bumps, and the buses would shake and rattle.

Google Maps says to do that commute tomorrow, to arrive at 9am would take 16 minutes by car, 27 minutes by bicycle and 54 minutes by bus. The 35 bus has 19 stops and takes 21 minutes to get to the Redbridge Park and Ride. Then theres a 15 minute wait for another bus to the Science Park.

If there was a station built in the Abindgon Waitrose car park, the door to door time would be about the same. Abingdon to Oxford would be quicker, but I'd have a 20 minute walk to the station, or 13 minutes with a walk and bus. A train ride would be smoother, but the frequency would be worse.

If I was still doing that commute, to discourage me from using my car, you could charge for the parking.

To get me to use a bus, a smoother ride without speed bumps, fewer stops and a more frequent service would help.

Even with the time to get my bicycle ready, cycle, lock it at work and have a shower, it would as fast as a journey by bus or train using 2-3 services.

 

[67018]

None of its on the cards as its just a wish list document, where is the detail on how its being funded?

It is indeed a wish list document; however my point was that the wishes it lists are at least reasonably well considered and not completely infeasible over the 15 years it covers. Unlike some of the suggestions here which seem wildly pie in the sky.

And the Rail Promoters group has been set up by Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford City Council and the Department for Transport - if they don't have the money, I don't know who does. If the government is serious about its growth plans, some of it will have to happen. (I readily accept that it's quite possible that the government may fail to deliver on its plans...)

 

[Zomboid]

I think Cowley has a decent chance of happening in my lifetime.

I don't think Abingdon has any chance, but I don't think the fact that the old junction faces north is a reason for that. If the likely demand is towards Didcot then a new build railway wouldn't need to use the old alignment, they could just build a south facing junction. But I suspect Abingdon is a satellite of Oxford much more than it is of London, and most of any likely demand would be that direction.

 

[William3000]

You could run Marylebone - Oxford trains into Abingdon without reversing, although admittedly that would still be a slower journey time than a change onto the Paddington trains.

I would imagine Abingdon to Oxford flows being bigger than Abington to London.

 

[bspahh]

I would imagine Abingdon to Oxford flows being bigger than Abington to London.

I agree. Abingdon is to Oxford as Ely is to Cambridge (less expensive houses, a cinema, swimming pool, Waitrose and Tesco, and shops with everything that you need, and nothing that you want).

 

[Magdalia]

I agree. Abingdon is to Oxford as Ely is to Cambridge (less expensive houses, a cinema, swimming pool, Waitrose and Tesco, and shops with everything that you need, and nothing that you want).

I don't know Abingdon very well, but the comparison with Ely is not a useful one.

Abingdon has a 33k population and is very close to Oxford, only about 6 miles away.

By way of contrast, Ely is 19k population and 15 miles from Cambridge.

Whereas the train makes sense for s lot of Ely-Cambridge journeys, the same can't be said for Abington-Oxford, because of the short distance between them, and the location of Oxford station.

For travel to Oxford, Abingdon is more like a much bigger version of Sawston, Waterbeach or Northstowe near Cambridge. But it isn't comparable with those either because it is big enough to be a significant economic centre in its own right.

 

[PTR 444]

I don't know Abingdon very well, but the comparison with Ely is not a useful one.

Abingdon has a 33k population and is very close to Oxford, only about 6 miles away.

By way of contrast, Ely is 19k population and 15 miles from Cambridge.

Whereas the train makes sense for s lot of Ely-Cambridge journeys, the same can't be said for Abington-Oxford, because of the short distance between them, and the location of Oxford station.

For travel to Oxford, Abingdon is more like a much bigger version of Sawston, Waterbeach or Northstowe near Cambridge. But it isn't comparable with those either because it is big enough to be a significant economic centre in its own right.

Ely is also a tourist destination in its own right, whereas Abingdon is not.